In recognition of Women’s History Month, the government, libraries, archives, and other nonprofit organizations can help us learn about women’s contributions to science, civil rights, culture and the arts, exploration, education, and government. Read President Obama’s 2016 Presidential Proclamation of Women’s History Month, and view the official government site for Women’s History Month to see a variety of online exhibits and sites about women in history. The

Finally, be sure to visit the Odum Library government documents exhibit on this year’s theme, Honoring Women in Public Service and Government, on display in the Reference area, second floor, south side of Odum Library.

VSU ArchivesIrene Dodd taught art at Valdosta State from 1967 through 2002. She donated artwork to VSU Archives earlier this year. The Irene Dodd Collection is open to the public in Odum Library.

By Dean Poling dean.poling@gaflnews.com

When former VSU art professor Irene Dodd donated several pieces of her art and art she has collected from other VSU art professors and students, Davis discovered a recently cleared hallway in the Odum Library.

Davis transformed the hallway into the new gallery for the Irene Dodd collection.

The works are primarily abstract paintings, prints, etc. They share a glimpse into the talent that has fueled Valdosta State’s art program from the past to the present.

The collection also includes four Dodd works. Dodd’s works are also exhibited in VSU’s Lamar Dodd Collection named for her father and the Valdosta Artists Collection.

Irene Dodd is a retired Valdosta State University art faculty member, working with the school from 1967 through 2002.

The daughter of famed artist Lamar Dodd, who founded the University of Georgia art program, Irene Dodd has spent her life developing as an artist.

She has headlined approximately 70 solo exhibits, ranging from Valdosta shows to exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the High Museum of Atlanta, the University of Georgia, etc.

Painting and being an artist is always a work in progress.

“It’s never finished,” Dodd said in a past artistic statement. “If you painted the perfect painting, why continue? There are times to continue with a certain work and a time to stop, but the painting is never absolutely finished. New experiences, past experiences, your attitude on a given day, they are all reflected and each painting is only a fragment representing a larger statement.”

Davis said the Irene Dodd Collection includes a signature piece of recurring themes throughout the artist’s career.

“Florence triptych” represents Dodd’s love for travel, especially to Italy; the use of gold throughout her paintings; and a canvas that straddles the abstract with the observed.

Dodd has painted Italian scenes throughout a career that has produced numerous paintings from European nations. She calls these paintings “Euroscapes.”

“My work is usually the outgrowth of sensory responses to an event something like an epiphany,” Dodd has said. “Because I have mastered the needed techniques to do that they seem natural, my approach is intuitive. As the work takes form, I move between the instinctive act of painting and the analysis of the emerging product. The resulting work should embody life experienced by the artist and recreated to the viewer.”

The Irene Dodd Collection is on view and open to the public on the lower floor of Odum Library, Valdosta State University campus.

The Odum Library’s rotating gallery is featuring the art of Joycelyn Hairston of South Carolina. Ms. Hairston is a folk artist who has shown her work throughout the Southeast.

As a member of one of Atlanta’s founding families, Joycelyn Hairston continues the family commitment to community and creativity. She paints what she knows and loves–gifts of grace, warm traditions and sincere hospitality–simple presentations on the complexities of life.

Joycelyn’s passions for architectural art history, historic renovation and restoration, and the creative celebration of everyday life are apparent in her works. She is most known for her deeply respectful heritage scenes and has a growing client base desiring her large abstracts. The range of her subject matter is personal and inventive and often exhibits humor. Her works are available for viewing on television, in museums, in public spaces and facilities, at institutions, through private collectors, and in her working studio. Joycelyn’s paintings exude a sense of pride and contentment. Many are created with colorful, unique brushwork.

Wherever she goes, her heart, eyes and mind are open to the ever abundant opportunities to capture special images in paint. She accepts private commissions, sells original oils and acrylics. Joycelyn’s art brings her friends who share her passion for color, creativity, and life. Joycelyn combines her southern heritage and love of people with her artistic talents in all her works.

April is Women’s History Month. While this FDLP entry is focusing on government information sources as usual, our slide this month features a photograph of a Georgia State Women’s College student volunteers’ traveling Library Project funded through the Nation Youth Administration (NYA) and the Works Project Administration (WPA) to help bring library service to rural communities. (1938 GSWC Bulletin, courtesy of the Archives & Special Collections, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Ga.)

Womenshistorymonth.gov offers links to an interactive 3D model of Amelia Earhart’s flight suit, a collection of nursing pioneer Clara Barton’s archived correspondence and other documents, a PBS documentary on photographer Dorothea Lange, and a feature on women in the military.

The National Park Service hosts a multitude of sites honoring women’s history; tour a selection of these sites at the Service’s Inside Story feature.

The Census Bureau’s Facts for Features for March 2015 features interesting facts about women’s history in the United States. For instance, as recorded in December 2013, the population of women in the U.S. was 161 million, compared to 156.1 million men.

During March 2015, learn more about women’s history, and be sure to honor the contributions of women local, regional, and national.

Artist and collector Andrew Tatler-Burgess studied art in Holland at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, and has worked as a professional artist for over two decades. He now resides in Pelham, Georgia. Several of his paintings are now on display on Odum Library’s 2nd floor gallery.

Using oils and acrylic, Tatler-Burgess captures his subjects in vivid colors and light. The 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha inspired his personal favorite piece, The Geisha. “Her stoic façade projects intimacy to her client and hides her true emotions.”

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Working under the pen-name “Wallen,” Tatler-Burgess has also painted the out-of-the-way locales and waterways of the Florida countryside.

Odum Library Archives and Special Collections houses many rare antique books, maps, art, Chinese ceramics, and medieval illuminated manuscripts– including pieces dating back to the middle of the 15th century– which were once part of Tatler-Burgess’ extensive personal collection.

Valdosta State University, which began as a college for women, offers local documentation of more than a century of the history of women in south Georgia, as evident in this photograph of the 1933 Euclidian (Math and Science) Club of what was then the Georgia State Woman’s College:

Deborah Davis, Michael Holt, and many student assistants and volunteers worked to collect, preserve, and make the collection accessible. Many of the letters are indexed individually. The collection can searched via Google, making the information easy for researchers to discover.

Leona married Dugald Hudson. They wrote many letters back and forth as he traveled in the Army. Later, they continued to travel the world together.

The Leona Hudson Collection contains materials that are potentially interesting to researchers in Military History, 20th century American and World History,Â South Georgia History, Valdosta, Georgia, Womenâ€™s Studies, photography, genealogy and many with other interests as well.

The Leona Hudson Collection was given to the VSU Archives and Special Collections by the estate of Leona Hudson in May of 2008. In addition, they gave Archives a grant that paid for the cost of processing the collection.

You may also navigate to the exhibit through the library’s web site. On the library’s home page, select Archives and Special Collections,Â select Exhibits, and select Eichberger East African Art Collection.